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Guide to: Primary Sources

Starting points for learning about and using primary sources at College of the Holy Cross.

Paleography & Transcriptions


Paleography & Transcriptions
Paleography is the study of handwriting -- specifically, of texts written on papyrus, wax, parchment, or paper. Not all primary sources are available in typed and/or keyword searchable format, so historians must be able to read handwritten documents and create accurate transcriptions of their contents. 

Transcription Guidelines & Tips

  • Try to capture what you see exactly as it appears! Preserve the capitalization, spellings (even misspellings), line breaks, words that have been crossed out, etc. Don't forget about seals, writing in the margins, or other unique features of the document.
     
  • If you're having trouble with a particular word...
    • Try zooming in on the image, or opening it in an image program and inverting the colors. 
    • See if you can figure it out by taking just 1 letter at a time. 
    • Look at other words/letters that you have confidently transcribed already, to get a feel for the handwriting style.
    • Don't be afraid to skip that section and come back. You might find that it becomes clearer after you spend time with other parts of the document.
       
  • If you are certain that you can't decipher a word, OR  if you are making a guess but don't feel confident in your reading -- use brackets and question marks to indicate this. For example: 
    •  [pet] 
       
    •  [po??] 
       
    •  [illegible] OR [?????] OR [-----] <- one ? or - per letter of the illegible word
       
  • However you choose to address formatting (or other) issues in your transcription -- be consistent!

Transcription Resources:

Handwriting Guides & Other Tools

Handwriting 

Other Tools